The film was released in both conventional and IMAX 3D theaters on November 10, 2004. It grossed $309 million worldwide, and was later listed in the 2006 Guinness World Book of Records as the first all-digital capture film. The film also marks Michael Jeter's last acting role before his death, and the film was thus dedicated to his memory.[4]

Plot

On the night of Christmas Eve, a Grand Rapids, Michigan boy is growing bitterly skeptical of the existence of Santa Claus. As he struggles to sleep, he is roused by the arrival of a steam locomotive on the street outside his home, and dons his robe to investigate, tearing the robe's pocket as he retrieves it. Outside, the train's conductor (Tom Hanks) introduces the train as the Polar Express, bound for the North Pole. The boy initially declines to board, but jumps aboard the train as it pulls away.

In a passenger car, he befriends a spirited and amicable girl, and a condescending know-it-all. The train stops to pick up an impoverished child, Billy, who also declines to board; Billy changes his mind, and the boy applies the emergency brake to allow him to catch up to the train, much to the conductor's chagrin. As Billy sits alone in the train's rear dining car, hot chocolate is served in the passenger car, and the girl saves her hot chocolate for Billy. As she and the conductor cross to the dining car, the boy notices she left her ticket behind unpunched, but loses hold of the ticket between the cars when he attempts to return it. The ticket reenters the passenger car, but not before the conductor notices its absence and escorts the girl back to the rear car.

The know-it-all claims that the conductor will jettison the girl from the back of the train; the boy recovers the ticket and dashes to the dining car in search of the conductor, climbing onto the roof from the rear platform. He meets a hobo camping on the roof, who offers him coffee and discusses the existence of Santa Claus and belief in ghosts. The hobo skis with the boy along the tops of the cars towards the train's coal tender, where the hobo disappears. Here, the boy discovers that the girl has been made to supervise the locomotive while engineers Steamer and Smokey replace the train's headlight. The train is forced to stop while the conductor disperses a herd of caribou, whereupon the engineers return to the cabin and the boy, girl and conductor remain on the catwalk on the front of the locomotive. The throttle's split pin sheers off, causing the train to accelerate uncontrollably down a 179-degree grade and onto a frozen lake, where the engineers repair the throttle with a hairpin and drift the train to realign it with the tracks. The boy returns the girl's ticket, and as the three return to the passenger car, the boy is accosted by an Ebenezer Scroogemarionette (controlled by the hobo), taunting him and calling him a doubter.

The train finally arrives at the North Pole, where the conductor announces that one of the passengers will be chosen to receive the first gift of Christmas, from Santa himself. The girl discovers Billy still alone in the rear car, and she and the boy persuade him to come along; however, the boy accidentally unhitches the car, sending it back along the line to a railway turntable in Santa's workshop. The children sneak through an elfcommand center and a gift sorting office before accidentally being dumped into Santa's sack, where they discover that the know-it-all stowed away along with them, hoping to open his Christmas presents early. The elves rescue them as Santa arrives, and the boy grows frustrated, unable to see Santa through the crowd. A jingle bell flies loose from the galloping reindeers' reins; the boy initially cannot hear it ring, until he finds it within himself to believe. He returns the bell to Santa as he passes, and Santa selects the boy to receive the first gift of Christmas. The boy asks to keep the jingle bell, and places it in his robe pocket.

Four of the elves use a handcar to trundle the wayward passenger car back to the train as the children all board the Polar Express to return home, but the then boy discovers that the pocket was torn and that the bell had fallen out. He returns home and awakens Christmas morning to find a present containing the bell. He holds it to his ear and shakes it; his parents, not believing in Santa, lament how the bell is "broken".

Cast

This film marks the final performance of actor Michael Jeter; Jeter died the year before the film's release.

Tom Hanks as the Hero Boy (motion-capture only), the Hero Boy's father, the Conductor, the Hobo, Santa Claus, and the Narrator

Production

Architecture

Administration building of the Pullman Palace Car Company

The buildings at the North Pole refer to a number of buildings related to American railroading history. The buildings in the square at the city's center are loosely based on the Pullman Factory in Chicago's Pullman neighborhood.[5]

IMAX 3D version

In addition to standard theatrical 35mm format, a 3-D version for IMAX was also released, generated from the same 3-D digital models used for the standard version.[9]

Home media release

The film was released on DVD as separated widescreen and full-screen versions in single and two-disc special editions (with bonus features) and on VHS on November 22, 2005, one year after the film came out.[10] It was released on Blu-ray with bonus features and presented in the original widescreen aspect ratio on October 30, 2007.

Reception

Critical response

On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11] On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 55% based on 202 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though the movie is visually stunning overall, the animation for the human characters isn't lifelike enough, and the story is padded."[12] Despite the polarized reception from critics, The Polar Express has been popular among audiences. The Independent reported in 2011 that the film "is now seen by many as a classic".[13]CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade.[14]

Roger Ebert gave the film his highest rating of four stars, saying, "There's a deeper, shivery tone, instead of the mindless jolliness of the usual Christmas movie." And "It has a haunting, magical quality ..." Acknowledging comments by other reviewers, Ebert said, "It's a little creepy. Not creepy in an unpleasant way, but in that sneaky, teasing way that lets you know eerie things could happen."[15]Richard Roeper gave a glowing review to the film as well, saying that it "remains true to the book, right down to the bittersweet final image."[quote without source]James Berardinelli gave it a 3.5/4, stating that it is "a delightful tale guaranteed to enthrall viewers of all ages", and ranked it as the 10th best film of 2004.[16]

The character design and animation were criticized for dipping into the uncanny valley.[17]Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film a 1 out of 4 stars, and called it "a failed and lifeless experiment in which everything goes wrong".[18] Stephanie Zacharek of Salon gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5 and said, "I could probably have tolerated the incessant jitteriness of The Polar Express if the look of it didn't give me the creeps."[19]Geoff Pevere of the Toronto Star stated, "If I were a child, I'd have nightmares. Come to think of it, I did anyway."[20]Paul Clinton from CNN called it "at best disconcerting, and at worst, a wee bit horrifying".[21]

Box office

The film opened at #2 and earned $23,323,463 from approximately 7,000 screens at 3,650 theaters, for a per-theater average of $6,390 and a per-screen average of $3,332 in its opening weekend. It also brought in a total of $30,629,146 since its Wednesday launch. The weekend total also included $2,100,000 from 59 IMAX theaters, for an IMAX theater average of $35,593, and had a $3,000,000 take since Wednesday. In its second weekend, it grossed another $15,668,101, averaging $4,293 from 3,650 venues and boosting the 12-day cumulative to $51,463,282 and over Thanksgiving weekend made another $19,389,927, averaging $5,312 from 3,650 venues and raising the 19-day cumulative to $81,479,861.[citation needed] The film has made $185,618,322 domestically (including IMAX re-releases), and $124,140,582 overseas for a total worldwide gross of $309,758,904.[2]

The film had its network TV premiere on ABC, December 1, 2006. The airing brought in 13.2 million viewers, winning its timeslot and ranking 20th in the Nielsen ratings that week, according to TVTango.com.

The "Polar Express Experience"

In November 2007, SeaWorld Orlando debuted the Polar Express Experience, a Motion Simulator ride based on the film. The attraction is a temporary replacement for the Wild Arctic attraction. The building housing the attraction was also temporarily re-themed to a railroad station and ride vehicles painted to resemble Polar Express passenger cars. The plot for the ride revolves around a trip to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. Guests feel the motion of the locomotive as well as the swinging of the train on ice and feeling of ice crumbling beneath them. The attraction was available until January 1, 2008,[25] and is now open annually during the Christmas season.